The astonishing image shows the moment when, some 500 years ago, two protostars collided deep within the Orion nebula.

Astronomers aren’t even sure if the stars fully collided or just grazed each other.

What they do know though is that the resulting explosion was so powerful that it sent other protostars and huge swathes of gas firing out into space at speeds of up to 150km per second.

To put that another way, the blast was so powerful that it produced as much energy in that one moment as our own Sun could produce in 10 million years.

ALMA ESO/NAOJ/NRAO J Bally

The team, led by John Bally, believe that these events are relatively short-lived lasting only a few centuries. However they provide a deep insight into how a planet’s birth can be just as explosive as its death.

By destroying the planet’s own parent cloud these huge events could actually regulate the formation of new planets.